CHRISTIAN READER

The Right Use of this Present Life

by Brian Carpenter

(This is Part 6 of a series. Click here to begin at Part 1.)

In the quest for the right use of this life and the things of this life, we are often tempted to go to one extreme or the other.  We either despise the things of this world and set up for ourselves (and others) a rigid system that says who can have what and how much. Or else we use our liberty as the pretext for the material equivalent of gluttony.

As Your Strength

The following is the twenty-eighth chapter from Andrew Murray's book, Abide in Christ.

"All power is given UNTO ME in heaven and in earth." (Matthew 28:18)

"Be strong IN THE LORD, and in the power of his might." (Ephesians 6:10)

"My power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9)

There is no truth more generally admitted among earnest Christians than that of their utter weakness. There is no truth more generally misunderstood and abused. Here, as elsewhere, God's thoughts are heaven-high above man's thoughts.

Delay of Gratification

by Brian Carpenter

(This is Part 5 of a series. Click here to begin at Part 1.)

When my wife was a child, she was told a story about two little girls who magically got to choose between two life scenarios. Have the first half of life be pleasant and easy, but the last part be painful and marked by hardship, or let the first half be marked by hardship and pain and the last half be marked by pleasure and gain and ease. Then the story followed those two girls in their decisions. The moral was that pleasure now and pain later equips you neither to use the pleasure appropriately, nor handle the pain later. But pain now and pleasure later equips you to handle both. She learned a great lesson from that story and has always been miles ahead of me in this area. My own upbringing was more "normal." It was marked by just the opposite approach.



That You May Not Sin

The following is the twenty-seventh chapter from Andrew Murray's book, Abide in Christ.

"In him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." (1 John 3:5-6)

"Ye know," the apostle had said, "that He was manifested to take away our sin," and had thus indicated salvation from sin as the great object for which the Son was made man. The connection shows clearly that the taking away has reference not only to the atonement and freedom from guilt, but to deliverance from the power of sin, so that the believer no longer does it. It is Christ's personal holiness that constitutes His power to effect this purpose. He admits sinners into life union with Himself; the result is, that their life becomes like His. "In Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not." As long as he abides, and as far as he abides, the believer does not sin. Our holiness of life has its roots in the personal holiness of Jesus. "If the root be holy, so also are the branches."

The Authority of the Bible

by D.P. Brooks

How can we account for the amazing vitality and relevance of the Bible? It was written over a period of many hundreds of years by all kinds of people: kings, shepherds, statesmen, farmers, prophets, fishermen. We have writers today who are far better educated than were the biblical writers. Many men in our culture have literary skills far beyond that of most of the humble people who helped write the Scriptures.

Trusting God to Provide

by Brian Carpenter

(This is Part 4 of a series. Click here to begin at Part 1.)

One of the reasons behind our lack of contentment and our restless desire to have more and more and more is fear.  It’s perhaps not an articulated fear or even a recognized fear.  But we fear not having enough and so we have to have the trappings of prosperity around us to assuage our fear.

And in Love to the Brethren

The following is the twenty-sixth chapter from Andrew Murray's book, Abide in Christ.

"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." (John 15:12)

"Like as the Father loved me, EVEN so I have loved you; LIKE AS I have loved you, EVEN SO love ye one another." God became man; divine love began to run in the channel of a human heart; it becomes the love of man to man. The love that fills heaven and eternity is ever to be daily seen here in the life of earth and of time.

God's Channel of Communication

by D.P. Brooks

The place of importance held by the Bible is not primarily man's choice but God's, because he has chosen the Scriptures as his channel fro communication with man. Alan Richardson, in A Preface to Bible Study, makes a momentous claim for the Bible:

The Bible is the place where God is encountered, where His message is spoken and His will is proclaimed... What we are saying is that God does speak through the Bible, that the Bible is the medium of His message to the world, that the Bible is God's own appointed channel of communication with men. That is to say, the normal order of things is that man hears God speaking to him as he kneels with the Bible in his hand.

Wrapped Up in Carnal Delights

by Brian Carpenter

(This is Part 3 of a series. Click here to begin at Part 1.)

Nietzsche said, famously, that God is dead.  By that he meant that the idea of God as a potent cultural force is dead.  In the Middle Ages people lived lives more or less consistent with the notion that this world was not the primary home of a human being, and that an omnipotent judge would one day bring all men to account using His own law as the yardstick of judgment. In his day (the late 19th Century) Nietzsche observed that those professing Christ lived as though this world and its comforts and pleasures was pretty much all there was.  In other words, they did not live as if God actually existed.  He once said, “I might believe in the Redeemer if His followers looked more Redeemed.”  It’s a cheap shot, of course, but not wholly without merit. If we consider what is, instead of what ought to be, then I think Neitzsche got it pretty close to right.  And I would submit that the average professing Christian in our day is even more of a worldling than the average professing Christian of Nietzsche’s day.

That Your Joy May be Full

The following is the twenty-fifth chapter from Andrew Murray's book, Abide in Christ.

"These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might abide in you, and that your joy might be full." (John 15:11)

Abiding fully in Christ is a life of exquisite and overflowing happiness. As Christ gets more complete possession of the soul, it enters into the joy of its Lord. His own joy, the joy of heaven, becomes its own, and that in full measure, and as an ever-abiding portion. Just as joy on earth is everywhere connected with the vine and its fruit, so joy is an essential characteristic of the life of the believer who fully abides in Christ, the heavenly Vine.